Pressure Point (Point #2) by Olivia Luck Read Free Book Online Page A

Pendent Arena.”
    This is the first time that I’ve heard about my clients, and I keep my expression neutral, not betraying my anticipation. Morgan Trucking’s fleet of seventy-eight trucks is all part of the Speck network. The homegrown Chicago company was one of the first to sign with Speck. During my interview, Colin told me about them and Pendent Arena. Pendent is a new client located twenty miles outside of the city. My Honda and I will spend lots of time together when I make client visits.
    “Morgan needs lots of hand holding; are you up for the challenge?” Katya drums her scarlet manicure on the glass tabletop impatiently.
    “Absolutely. Just think of me as a sponge. I’ll soak up everything Speck quickly and –”
    “Great. Client coming in five, we can wrap this up now,” Katya interrupts with a dismissive wave of her hand.
    Seriously? I balk silently. Forcing a pleasant smile, I rise to my feet. Inside, I’m thrown for a loop. Everyone I’ve met at Speck, thus far, has been friendly and welcoming. You are the new kid on the block. You need to earn your stripes before she’ll treat you as an equal, I remind myself.
    Try as I might, I can’t push past the crestfallen dive my stomach takes. There was no sign of superiority from anyone who I interviewed with or all of the photos and videos that I stalked on Speck’s social media pages.
    A visible sheen of sweat glimmers on Colin’s forehead as we walk toward his office. Inside, he shuts the door behind us and flops into his chair with drama. “She’s not always so…abrupt, I promise.”
    The kindness melts the sliver of fire that had ignited inside of me. I sit down in the seat opposite of my new boss. “Colin, I meant what I said; I’m thrilled to be here. And I’m looking forward to getting to know Katya better.”
    His distress evaporates a little when he sits up straighter in his chair. “It was a rough morning, I apologize. I didn’t know Katya was in town. There’s nothing to do but make the best of it.”
    I nod in affirmation, not wanting to speak ill of my boss’s boss. If there’s one thing that I learned in my career as an RA in college, it was never to trash talk your supervisor. A friend was forced to work in the freshmen dorm notorious for illicit drug use and parties broken up by the cops because she spread rumors about the head of the RA program. Admittedly, I’m cautious, but this is my first real job, after all.
    Colin offers me a crooked smile. “Let’s get started.”
    Katya’s forgotten as I fall feet first into all things Speck.
     
    There are three Baccino brothers: Carlo, Al, and Enzo. Thick as thieves from the day they were born, the Baccino boys live within five city blocks of each other. Between the brothers and their wives, there are five children. The Baccino family, wives, in-laws, cousins, and children meld together into one boisterous, devoted family. Sure, there are squabbles, but they all come from a place of love. The oldest of my cousins are Benito (Ben) and his sister Antonia. Next are the twins, Dominic and Massimo (Max). At the bottom of the cousin totem pole, by two years, is me. Hence the “kid” nickname.
    All this background amounts to one thing—after my first night of work, there’s no one who I’d rather grab a celebratory cocktail with than my cousin Max. He’s a firefighter and keeps odd hours. Today, he’s off duty. Out of the whole lot of cousins, I’ve grown closest to him. While I was at school, he visited occasionally, becoming friends with Zoe, too. He’s laidback but still protective at the same time, if that makes sense. Like me, he wants to keep the peace in the family and help whenever he can. Especially with our cousin, Ben.
    With Violet lightly gripping my hand, I weave through Red Door, a bar in Lakeview, a north side neighborhood near Max’s fire station and his apartment. It took no less than an eight-hour workday for Violet and I to fall into a familiarity. We gabbed